Monday, April 30, 2018

Let me tell you a few
deplorable things that happened in America this weekend. Nearly 43 million
people woke up in poverty in the richest country in the world. And 3.2 million
Americans woke up without health insurance. A further 36 people died because of gun violence,
bringing the total number of gun deaths in the US this year to 4,627.

All of that is
deplorable. What is in absolutely no way deplorable or shocking or outrageous
or unacceptable is a joke about eye shadow. You probably know what I mean, it
was headline news on Sunday. But if you missed the controversy, the summary is
that a comedian called Michelle Wolf

made
a gag about Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the annual White House
correspondents’ dinner in DC.

“I think [Sanders is]
very resourceful,” Wolf said about the White House press secretary. “Like, she
burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye.”

Wolf was referencing
Sanders’ well-documented history of defending Trumps brazen lies. Earlier
this month for example, Sanders defended Trump’s racist claims that
women from Central America are raped at “levels
that nobody has ever seen before”. She also justified Trump’s entirely
unfounded claims that “millions and millions” of illegal votes are cast in
America’s elections by saying that the president “strongly feels” that is the
case. Sanders lectures the press about accuracy but spends her days helping
Trump fuel racism and hate with shameless lies. Sanders, in brief, is a morally
bankrupt person and Wolf was holding her to account.

Sanders may be a
morally bankrupt person but guess what? She’s also a wife and mother and it is
really very mean for Wolf to stoop so low as to mention Sanders’ eye shadow.
Can you imagine the devastating psychological impact of having a comedian
reference your affinity for a smoky eye? Can you imagine how damaged her kids
must be by the reference to their mum’s makeup?

Personally, I can’t
imagine any of this, but it seems plenty of other people can… read more: